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Analysis Of No Child Left Behind

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The No Child Left Behind Act was to be President George W. Bush’s signature legislation coming into Office. After being delayed by the 9/11 Terror attacks, the act received wide bipartisan support and was passed into law. Its purpose was to “close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child (was) left behind” ("One Hundred Seventh Congress of the United States of America" 2008). In addition, “No Child Left Behind (aimed to continue) the legacy of the Brown v. Board decision by creating an education system that (was) more inclusive, responsive, and fair” ("A Guide to Education and No Child Left Behind-- Pg 13" 2007). Essentially, they were aiming to improve education with a problem definition amounting …show more content…

This is completely counter to how the federal government has traditionally left education in the hands of the state and local governments. Another way that Bush could have defined the education problem is that, “compared to the rest of the world, the United States is falling behind in education rankings.” Just before NCLB was put into place, “Test scores (earned by American students in a 1998 international study were) much worse than the marks that American elementary and middle school students…earned on similar international exams in the past two years” (Sanchez 1998). America had a less homogenous society in terms of wealth, language, and socioeconomic background compared to many of the top performers like Finland and Japan ("A Profile of Student Performance in Mathematics" 2004). This explains the emphasis on closing the gap rather than catching up to other countries.
Many alternatives were considered when NCLB was being fine-tuned. The following were all included in the final draft

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